Cronulla’s Jarvis Earle showed the same level of promise seen from prominent Cronulla goofy-footers like Connor O’Leary, Andy King, Richard Marsh, Gary Green and Mark Occhilupo when he took out the under-14s boys division at the 2017 Surf Dive’n’Ski Australian Junior surfing titles at Culburra.
One of five locals competing, Earle posted an excellent 8.67 scoring wave for an extraordinary left-hander, which he proceeded to smash apart and link together a chain of innovative turns and snaps. When the heat wrapped up, Earle got the nod with a 14.67 heat total to take the win against Western Australian Solomon Pogue-Englert (Gracetown) who notched up a close 14.06 total and finished runner-up.
Western Australia ensured they left their mark on the Australian junior titles, taking out the under-16s boys and girls MR Shield and under-19s boys MR Shield.
Cronulla under-18s surfer Jay Brown and the host state of NSW claimed wins in the 19 Boys and Girls All-Stars division as well as the under-16s girls All-Stars division.
Jay and Darcy Crump (Avalon) were able to get the highest scores across the schools divisions, posting a giant 16.34 heat total to get the win ahead of Victoria’s Tully Wylie (Jan Juc) and Taj Sleeman (Wonthaggi).
Well the Northerly cycle finally cracked at Cronulla-3 weeks of small Nor East swell left our beaches full of sand with no banks outside the shore break.The Alley and Wall were the only spots left with any banks and a crowd to match.
The Southerly that blew through yesterday has brought 5/6 ft of new swell and things are on the move.
Swellnet predicts a mix of swell this week however today looks a treat with light Sou-Westerly winds and afternoon sea breezes and we have yet another quality round of swell from a completely independent source, due to build on Thursday.
I took todays pics at the Alley this morning where some nice lumps were breaking and at Cronulla point yesterday as the swell picked up.
A new Southerly swell will form overnight Friday and into Saturday so we’re probably looking at 3-4ft at south facing beaches on Saturday.
A solid south swell for Sunday, along with a moderate to fresh Southerly change is predicted during the day. Early indications are for solid 6ft sets at south facing beaches-so a good finish to the week.
Aussie champ Tyler Wright earned her second World Title after a big day of competition at the final event of the 2017 World Surf League Championship Tour , the Maui Women's Pro.
“Today was perfect,” said Wright. “I was so excited to be in this event and excited to be in this position. I have just been having the best week and I cannot explain how much this week has meant to me. We’ve just had a sick team and everyone has been amazing” Wright said.
It was bad news for Sally Fitz who blew it but good for Steph Gilmore whose impeccable form at Honolua Bay continued after posting another near-perfect 9.50 in her Quarterfinal heat against Silvana Lima (BRA). Although Gilmore could not earn her seventh World Title, the decorated competitor was unstoppable in her hunt for a history-making, fourth Maui trophy.
Still in Hawaii,Conner Coffin snuck up on everyone and took out the 2017 Vans World Cup at big and classic Sunset Beach.Coffin's victory over two other Californians, Kolohe Andino and Griffin Colapinto, and as well as Australian Wade Carmichael was the capper to a pressure-packed final day of the Qualifying Series.
Aussie Carmichael started the day on the cusp of qualification, but needed to progress through at least two rounds to avoid a repeat of his 2015 qualification misfire. He's been flirting with CT qualification for the past few years, suffering a crushing near-miss in 2015 after winning the Hawaiian Pro that winter.
I cant wait -he is an animal-old school power surfing!
Top 10 2018 Qualifying Series Rankings:
Griffin Colapinto (USA)
Jesse Mendes (BRA)
Kanoa Igarashi (USA)
Wade Carmichael (AUS)
Tomas Hermes (BRA)
Yago Dora (BRA)
Italo Ferreira (BRA)
Willian Cardoso (BRA)
Keanu Asing (HAW)
Ezekiel Lau (HAW)
Pipe starts this week so let's see how Connor O’Leary goes in the real waves-bring it on.